Referendum on the Independence of Scotland Laura Meynet

Referendum on the Independence of Scotland Laura Meynet To cite this version: Laura Meynet. Referendum on the Independence of Scotland: the Campaign (2012-2014). Education. 2018. hal-02353499 HAL Id: hal-02353499 https://hal-univ-fcomte.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-02353499 Submitted on 7 Nov 2019 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution - NonCommercial - NoDerivatives| 4.0 International License _____________________________________ Mémoire présenté pour l’obtention du Grade de MASTER « Métiers de l’Enseignement, de l’Education et de la Formation » Mention 2nd degré, Professeur des Lycées et Collèges, Anglais Referendum on the Independence of Scotland : the Campaign (2012- 2014) présenté par MEYNET Laura Sous la direction de : Monsieur LAPLACE Philippe (UFR SLHS) Année universitaire 2017-2018 Remerciements Je tiens à remercier sincèrement les personnes qui m’ont aidée dans l’écriture de ce mémoire, d’une manière ou d’une autre. Je souhaite remercier en premier lieu mon directeur de recherche, Monsieur Philippe Laplace, pour le temps qu’il m’a consacré, ses conseils, sa patience et sa bienveillance, ainsi que pour les nombreux ouvrages qu’il m’a généreusement confiés pendant la rédaction de ce mémoire. Merci également à mes collègues du Collège Edgar Faure à Valdahon et tout particulièrement à Virginie Michel, ma tutrice, Pascal Pariset, Myriam Jacoulot, Guillaume Gérard, Salwa Benacher et François Gomez, qui m’ont soutenue moralement grâce à leur bonne humeur à toute épreuve. 1 Table des matières A. Partie disciplinaire……………………………………………………………….3 Introduction………………………………………………………………………….3 I. Scotland’s relation to independence………………......……………………..5 I.1. The 1979 referendum……………..……………………………………………..5 I.2. The 1997 referendum……………………………………………………………7 I.3. The 2014 referendum……………………………………………………………9 II. The 2014 campaign for Scotland to become independent………………….11 II.1. Yes Scotland…………………………………………………………………..11 II.2. The role of celebrities…………………………………………………………14 II.3. Why people voted yes…………………………………………………………15 III. The 2014 campaign for Scotland to stay within the United Kingdom…..…17 III.1. Better Together……………………………………………………………….17 III.2. The role of celebrities………………………………………………………...19 III.3. Why people voted no…………………………………………………………20 Conclusion……...……………..……………………………………………………22 B. Partie didactique…………………………………………………………..……23 C. Bibliographie…………………………………………………………………...39 2 A. PARTIE DISCIPLINAIRE Introduction I wanted to work on Scotland and on its desire for independence and I decided to focus on the referendum campaign, that is to say the two years before the referendum (from 2012 to 2014) since it was the first time the Scots were directly asked if they wanted to have an independent country. If the majority had answered “yes”, it would have been a historical event. This piece of work having a limited number of pages, I had to restrict my research, that is why I chose these two years in particular. However, an explanation about how Scotland had reached this point was compulsory and I thought that a part of my work had to deal with Scotland and its relation to independence. Many studies have been published about this subject since it was a highly important event for the country and some were written especially to explain the situation, what would happen if Scotland became independent and what would happen if it did not. I worked a lot with L’Ecosse en quête d’indépendance ? Le référendum de 2014 by Nathalie Duclos and L’Ecosse et la tentation de l’indépendance – Le référendum d’autodétermination de 2014 by Edwige Camp-Pietrain. These two books were written by French writers and I appreciated the fact that they were presented without really taking part for one side or another in the debate, they were only factual and let me understand the main points of the 2014 referendum. The campaign obviously implied advertising and commitment, so I found numerous articles, interviews, caricatures, posters and videos. Many people including celebrities gave their opinion and it was interesting to understand why they would vote “yes” or “no” and to have their opinion about what would happen in any case. Some articles helped me a lot like “Committed Tuppence-worth: When Celebrities Dabble in Scottish Politics” by Robert Wirth and “Better Together and the No Campaign: from Project Fear to Grace?” by Fiona Simpkins. However, it was sometimes difficult to make the difference between real facts and information that was invented by people to convince the others. Some works were occasionally too “pro-independence” or “pro-union”. 3 The main issues here will be to understand how Scotland came to this referendum on independence, what was at stake but above all, how the campaign from 2012 to 2014, advertising and commitment, led to this result which was not expected a few weeks before the vote. Trying to make these issues clearer, I will start with an explanation of Scotland’s relation to independence, coming back to the previous referendums. Then, I will examine the campaign for Scotland to become independent and the “Yes Scotland” camp. Finally, I will analyze the campaign for Scotland to stay within the United Kingdom and the “Better Together” camp. 4 I. Scotland’s relation to independence I.1. The 1979 referendum After Elizabeth I, who was childless, died, her distant relative, James VI of Scotland, came onto the throne and became the first King of England, Scotland and Ireland in 1603. Scotland, which all the same remained an independent country until 1707, became part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain with England that year. Indeed, the Act of Union united the two countries (Ireland joined them in 1801). Scotland lost its Parliament and the Scottish members went to Westminster, even though the Act provided that nothing would change for Scotland concerning law or the Church for example1. The Kilbrandon Commission was created in 1969 by the Labour Government and set the following terms of reference: To examine the present functions of the present legislature and government in relation to the several countries, nations and regions of the United Kingdom; To consider, having regard to changes in local government organisation and in the administrative and other relationships between the various parts of the United Kingdom, and to the interest of the prosperity and good government and our people under the Crown, whether any changes are desirable in those functions or otherwise in present constitutional and economic relationships; To consider also whether any changes are desirable in the constitutional and economic relationships between the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man2. In 1973, the report of this Commission stated that Scotland should have its own devolved legislature and that the Scottish Government should be able to take decisions concerning health, environment, education, the legislature, social services and internal issues. Scotland has always wanted a certain degree of independence, and in 1979, a referendum was proposed in Scotland, supported by James Callaghan and his Labour 1 Françoise Grellet, A Cultural Guide To: The United Kingdom and Ireland, The Commonwealth, The United States, p.29. 2 Royal Commission on the Constitution 1969-1973, Volume I. 5 Government3, “as a last desperate attempt to impede progress of a Parliament Bill”4. They wanted to be more autonomous within the United Kingdom. The Scotland Act had been voted in 1978 on condition that there would be a referendum to ask the question about devolution to the Scottish residents5. The question was “Do you want the Provisions of the Scotland Act 1978 to be put into effect?”: 51.6% voted in favour of devolution but only 32.9% of the electorate voted, instead of 40% required by the Cunningham Amendment for the Act to pass; that is why the latter was repealed and James Callaghan was replaced by Margaret Thatcher. In an article from The Scotsman, Chris Baur wrote: “[W]e were not after all, as we may have fondly imagined, engaged in a solemn and historic consultation with our parliamentarians […] the device of the referendum is in fact little more than a shady plaything of party politicians”6. 3 “The Labour Party, traditionally the party of the working class, linked to the trade unions, defending public ownership and high public spending on social services and education”, Françoise Grellet, A Cultural Guide To: The United Kingdom and Ireland, The Commonwealth, The United States, p.40. 4 Gordon Wilson, Scotland: The Battle for Independence, p.42. 5 Nathalie Duclos, L’Ecosse en quête d’indépendance? Le référendum de 2014, p.65. 6 Chris Baur, “Time to Lay down Referendum Rules”, The Scotsman. Repris dans L’Ecosse en quête d’indépendance, p.69. 6 I.2. The 1997 referendum The Scots just put the idea of devolution aside for a while and came back with another referendum in 1997, supported by Tony Blair who would keep up John Smith’s policy by giving more powers to Scotland. Tony Blair’s aim was to pull the rug out from under the SNP’s7 feet since he was a member of the Labour government. “White papers”, long and detailed programs, were proposed to people before voting, to let them know what would happen thanks to devolution. Contrary to the 1979 referendum, this one only needed a majority of votes but two questions were asked: First ballot paper: “Parliament has decided to consult people in Scotland on the Government's proposals for a Scottish Parliament” and the electorate had to choose between “I agree that there should be a Scottish Parliament” and “I do not agree that there should be a Scottish Parliament”.

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